The ironic dead
This novel shows a group of soldiers moving the dead from the battlefield to a more secure location in the trenches. That means that the living soldiers have to move the dead ones, which means they are perfectly unable to deny the fact that they are in a life threatening situation. The fact that burial is too much of an operation to take care of while the battle is still going means that the dead bodies stack up, and before long, it's like a scene from a horror movie.
The irony of the individual and the collective
There is an ironic dilemma between the individual and the collective in the army of this novel. That comes from the fact that each person is still themselves, but because of the situation at hand, there is obviously an unprecedented need to cooperate and be united, but they aren't united completely because of the rich and their disregard of the soldiers' lives and sacrifices. This tension doesn't help them succeed, but to be honest, the real irony is that none of that matters in light of the tanks and bombs and stuff. Then, everyone is an individual again, fighting for their life.
The irony of politics and war
The more political leaders are always up to something in the Allied Forces. They seem to be unable to remember the violent nature of their predicament, because they are convinced that when the war ends, they will profit from their involvement. This is ironic, though, because all men are equal in the eyes of death and warfare, so the politics of the battlefield are completely unproductive. After WWI, these politicians will return to discover that the world has forever changed.
The irony of trench warfare
The irony of trenches is that they are defensive maneuvers built for establish a kind of back rank, so people can retreat to a ditch when they are being shot at. In this instance, this is terribly ironic, because both sides in the battle dug ditches, expecting to push through the center path, Dead Man's Land. But, because of the introduction of the machine gun, almost no one could even cross the field without being gunned down. Instead of a resource, the trenches because a kind of curse.
The irony of modern warfare
Obviously, the modernity of warfare must be addressed in any WWI story, because the truth of the matter was so plainly ironic. Most of the soldiers expected the kind of war that had existed in the path. Why should they expect anything different? Planes, tanks, chemical warfare, heavy artillery, and many more horrific weapons—even flamethrowers—were used in the Great War, but not before then. That means that ironically, these characters completely misunderstand their fate the whole time. When battle erupts, they realize that things are worse than they imagined.
